I thought it was an interesting discussion to be had. It's very clear each breed or mix has a general goal and then within it there are types and then personal ideals. Does your dog, whether you breed or not, fit those ideals?

In a hypothetical world where you can breed altered dogs and or do not have to care for finding puppies homes, etc.

The question is why or why not do you feel your dog is worthy of breeding?

A. Is registered with a reputable registry not some fly by night paper registry
B. Comes from health tested parents
C. Comes from a pedigree of health tested dogs with amazing lines where 98% of his ancestors are titled at high level Schutzhund
D. Comes from a sire who is an amazing producer and is titled
E. Comes from a dam who had a ton of potential and was a wonderful dog.
F. Comes from a good breeder who consistently produces working caliber dogs not just sport level dogs.
G. Has been evaluated by numerous outside people and received good comments and remarks from them
H. Has an amazing temperament
I. Has nice conformation with a couple minor faults that are not bad faults persay, just faults
J. Has wonderful drive and working ability
K. Has been fully health tested and passed everything with good marks.
L. Is working towards higher level titles in one sport and novice titles in others.
M. Has stable nerves and a clear head.
N. Is a versatile dog as a GSD in my opinion should be.
O. Is just a very nice example of what a working bred GSD should be IMHO.

LoLa...well.....the world doesn't need any more Grogres running around. She has health issues due to poor conformation and doesn't come from health tested or titled stock. Her bloodlines farther back are ok but the ones close are crap. So...LoLa was spayed....no need for more LoLas in the world.

As much as I love Zuma, and I adore everything about her, I would have to say mostly no on this one. Her conformation is odd, and while she has a ton of drive, she's picky about using it. She's reactive to other dogs in certain situations and randomly gets funky phobias that take a bit to coax her through. For instance, last week I had to fix her fear of the front door at the clinic I work at (the same door she's been going through for the last 1.5 years without a problem), because she accidentally slipped one time going through it. Not even a bad slip, just messed up her footing a little. So it took a couple days to get her ok with it again.

The Zuma the public sees? Yes, THAT Zuma is worthy of being bred. The Zuma I see/mold to get the public version of Zuma? No, not worthy.

I'm going to answer for Zinga too, even though she's only 10 months old and I really have no idea of how she's going to turn out in the long run. I adore her temperament. I adore her drive when she's focused. She's outgoing, fearless, fun, moldable and enthusiastic. Right now she's also chaotic. If that chaos is never able to be channeled, then no, she won't fit what I call "breed worthy".

Maggie is a very, very good pet for the average family. She's calm in the house and playful outside, doesn't have any bad habits, healthy, has pretty good structure (which would be easier to tell if she wasn't obese) and loves everyone, including all humans, most dogs, and cats. She did go through a stage where she was leash reactive, but that was due to an incident, it wasn't anything genetic.

But, I still don't think I would breed her, because I have no idea what her genetics are like, or even what mix she is, and you can find millions of dogs just like her sitting around in shelters and rescues.

Unless this magical world didn't have an overwhelming amount of dogs in the rescue system, but I doubt I would, just because of the whole "don't know her background" thing.

So for mixed dogs would this be a hypothetical breeding mix to mix or just pretending there's a whole breed of Murphys/Mus/Tippers out there?

Either way, there are some killer mixes out there that probably are breed worthy and I would respect a breeding, in theory.

It's more about the discussion, such as Arnold is not because xyz (I'll actually fill that in when on lunch) but Shamoo is because of xyz, however I'm not pulling up the UKC show standard as my pure reasoning, maybe a bit more more so it has to do with health and temperament with those two.

In an hypothetical world I would not breed Arnold but I would breed Shamoo. (To be filled in)

Kim -- General farmhand/all-arounder mix -- Yes. As in, she is fit-for-purpose and is well-suited to her jobs. That said I wouldn't breed her. I'd clone her though if I could
Webster -- No. He's a great guy and I adore him but he's a lot like Sara's description of Zuma, though the quirks are different.
Mira -- Flat-Coated Retriever and all that entails -- Yes.
Cookie -- So far yes. Mentally she shows a lot of promise, physically it's too soon to tell.

I'm not sure how to expand on that without going all novel-y and making my thumbs fall off.

Yes, both the dogs I currently own, I consider breed worthy. Obviously I consider Tess breed worthy, because I did. And I regret not breeding her again. Though I had what seemed like good reasons to spay her when I did.

I consider her breed worthy because she's a healthy dog of excellent type and sound structure & solid temperament. Lots of working drive. She has oodles of titles, but those are just proof of the qualities she has, which I already knew about, so I planned to breed her from puppyhood. In particular, she has a good front, which is something I don't always see in my breed. (and which is the main reason I originally bred Tully to produce Tess)

I consider Pirate breed worthy because he's Tess' son, ridiculously handsome (better overall than Tess is, though so far, not as successful in the show ring), brilliantly intelligent, excellent structure (though to be honest, his sister's structure is just a bit better. But her owners didn't want to breed.) And in particular, because he has what I consider possibly the best temperament I could ever ask for.

Just so I don't sound like I think all my dogs are perfect, , I'll add that my first Stafford was not breed worthy. I adopted him as a rescue, and he was also cryptorchid, so breeding was never on the table. And he was an amazing dog, a wonderful dog to start in dog sports with, and the best possible introduction to the breed for me. But he had a lack of angulation which is typical in his lines, and could be a contributor to his front end injuries. Poor pigmentation, which is not the worst fault, but potentially could become a health concern if bred from without ever trying for improvement. Some other cosmetic defects (ie; wonky ears), not as big a deal, but not something to breed willy nilly. And a tendency to stereotypy behaviors, which I think very likely is a genetic trait in dogs.

Ziva: yes, she's a super easy dog, but with nice drives, only a few Qs from her ADCH, awesome temperament, nice structure, overall very healthy. Only health issue is spay incontinence, which wouldn't be an issue if she were intact! LOL

Kestrel: really not sure - he was neutered way early so I think a lot of his structure is due to that (he's uber leggy), but I wouldn't think he was breed worthy if that was his "real" structure if left intact. I like his temperament (very social, good with other dogs, not environmentally sensitive), but he does have some focus issues that we continue to work through. I'd want more titles on him if he were intact and I was considering breeding.

Aeri: too soon to tell. I really like a lot of her personality/drives, but she hasn't competed enough imo to make a final call breed worthiness-wise. Structurally, she's what I'd want. She's a little more environmentally sensitive than I'd like, but her super fast bounceback generally makes up for it. The variety in her littermate's temperaments would make me pause a bit as well.

Snipe: Like Aeri, too young and doesn't have enough titles at this time. I do like how she's put together, she's got awesome drive, esp for a random mix, super keen on training, very athletic, environmentally sound, etc. But she does occasionally show some snarkiness with other household dogs that I'm not a huge fan of. She's also a little more handler sensitive than I personally like, but I think many other people would appreciate the balance she has in that area.